Author: greywolfe

Greywolfe is a curmudgeon who likes old games, long walks on the beach and also bear form in World of Warcraft. He sends his regards from the Lonely Island where he does nothing but play King's Quest and write opinion pieces all day.

Do You Sometimes Feel LIke You Could Take Over The World?!

If so, then GOG has the perfect game for you: Day of the Tentacle. Better still, it's Day of the Tentacle remastered, so you get a modern looking game and modern sounds alongside the original charm of the DOS version - which you can flip to at [almost] any time.

And time is of the essence, because you'll be cast into three time periods while you play - the past, the present and the far future. Use twisty time-travel logic to solve puzzles spanning all three ages and witness the hilarity as LucasArts works it's curious brand of comedy magic.

It's a magical time, because if you pre-order between now and March 22, GMT you will also get exclusive Day of the Tentacle wallpapers, courtesy of GOG.

You can pre-order here.

Four ^H^H^H^H Three out of Four In February Ain’t Bad

I had such high hopes for February, I really did.

I sat on Banjo Tooie, because I wanted to experience it, but I didn't want to experience it quite so close to Banjo Kazooie. I was genuinely looking forward to what Plague Knight had in store for me at the end of Shovel Knight. I wanted to delve into Simon the Sorcerer and find out if time - and my memory of that game - had treated it well. I also wanted to see if - a year on - Jazzpunk was still that spellbinding, silly experience I found it to be while watching Lucahjin play it.

You can read my gung-ho and ready post about all that here.

This tragic tale is a tale of how that all fell flat and how I ended up playing three games that weren't even on my list. Well. Kind of.

[Please Note:  Some of the links in this article will take you away from Twinstiq.  They have been formatted such that they will open new browser tabs.]

Read more

Sequels Are Hurting The Game Industry.

I don't play as many games as I used to. Part of the reason for this has to do with the fact that I'm just more picky now: often, games only appeal to one of my senses and not all of them. As in, I can be swayed a little by the graphics. Or maybe I hear the soundtrack and I get pulled in by that. Or I watch gameplay and my mind starts considering those ideas.

Another part of the problem - especially when it comes to AAA gaming, has to do with the fact that all AAA studios and publishers know how to do is pump out sequels. It's even written into their language, in how they discuss their games - like they're brands and they're perennial and they have to "re-invigorate" those over and over again.

And it isn't doing the industry any favours. Let me tell you why. Read more

Dear Joystiq-that-was

It's been a year. Well, as of this writing, it's been a year and a bit. A year since I was last able to go to Joystiq and participate in the comments section as people discussed their WRUP's. A year since I could download and listen to a Joystiq Podcast - basking in the familiarity of the voices and the banter and the thoughts on video games. A year since the last time I've had terse arguments against DRM with other regulars of a video game website.

And you know what? I still miss it. Read more

I’d Like To See Some Real Games About Real Relationships.

There aren't enough interesting games about people and the most intimate way they can spend their time: in a relationship. Very often, games are peripherally aware that people get together and very often, those steps toward getting together are sometimes charted in fumbling missteps that lead to pixelated lovemaking. It's often pretty vapid and uninteresting. It's also completely misrepresented.

Very often, the lady/man is at the end of the quest. Something to be won.

Sometimes, the lady/man is up front and you play the bad innuendo game all the way through.

But mostly, games want us to feel lust for the lady/man we're after. They're beautiful and sometimes eager and they feel no shame in being objects.

This isn't the sort of game I'd like to see at all.

I'd like to see something with more substance. Read more

Hearthstone: League of Explorers Review: BRB. Dodging A Collapsing Temple.

Hearthstone's solo adventures are always a pleasant change of pace. Instead of beating up on other people, we're beating up on imaginary bosses. These bosses are generally thematically linked through some crumbs of story that get doled out as each wing of the adventure unlocks.

In the case of League of Explorers, the story's wrapped around a kind of Indiana Jones-like concept, where you help both prominent Warcraft lore figures and newcomers alike to banish a thief named Rafaam from the current dig you're on.

It's simple and fun - for the most part. It also introduces new adventure mechanics, new cards with thematic ideas and my very favourite Murloc - something I thought I'd never say - in the form of Sir Finley Mrrgglton.

So, as Peter Molyneux might ask...what's inside the box? Read more

I Played It Twice And I Changed

I've been playing video games for a very, very long time at this point. The first couple of times I stood in front of anything that resembled a game was back in 1979 or 1980. I don't recall which one it was now - might have been Asteroids. Might have been Space Invaders. All I know is that the moment my eyes took in that crude joystick and those round, red buttons of the arcade machine, I had found a kind of home. A hobby that has, so far, spanned a lifetime.

I dove headlong into that hobby.

And I played.

A lot. Read more

#4if

Greywolfe’s #4if

I got into #4if pretty late. The first year I tried it, [2012] my computer blew up and I had to postpone it to March of that year to get it done. The second year, I got three out of four games done - I ended up trying to plow through a game that just took too long. In 2014, I think I sat it out completely. Last year was...well, it was depressing. Joystiq went away and I wasn't sure if I was going to try and attempt it, but in the end I did - I didn't finish [silly Hand of Fate got in the way] but I gave it a whirl.

This year, I have four games all lined up and ready and I'm going to try my very best to finish them off.

What am I playing? Read more

Prince of Persia: Sands of time Review: Time In A Dagger

Way back when - back when PC's were still young-ish and AAA-gaming was a little like indie gaming is today, there was a guy named Jordan Mechner. He wanted to make very visual, story-intense games. But the thing is, the hardware wasn't quite at the point where he could do what he wanted. So, instead of making photo-realistic, beautifully rendered games - because he couldn't - he made stunningly realized pixel-based games that had the most fluid movement you could possibly imagine.

His first design was the masterfully simple Karateka. Always go right. Flip between fight stance and run stance. Kill the bad guys. Watch the story unfold. As simple as Karateka was, it summed up Mechner's way of creating games.

Between Karateka and Prince of Persia, five years would pass - and while the graphics got better, they were still not realistic. Which was fine. Prince of Persia was moody and simple - the motion of the prince was what was important. And boy was he fluid.

This doesn't quite bring me to Sands of Time, but it does illustrate the main point I'm trying to make - a lot of Jordan Mechner's games are about the fluidity of the body - and how beautiful it can seem when running or jumping or engaged in combat.

And that, in a nutshell, is where Sands of Time absolutely delivers. Read more

SaleWrup

Well, we keep going from one sale to another. If it isn't the GOG winter sale or the Steam Christmas sale, then it's the Humble store sale. And I'm trying to avoid that particular sale because it's singing the siren song of Dark Souls.

And while I want to play Dark Souls, it'll open up the floodgates to terrible DRM. And we wouldn't want that :P

So, if you're participating in any of the sales going on [there's also a PSN store sale, I'm told] - why don't you tell us what you're playing or planning to play once you've done shopping?

This is what the Twinstiq crew are up to: Read more